The Shoebox
by My Black Backpack
Summary: Lily rejects James again and Sirius has had enough. He makes her see clearly as he shows her a special shoebox. One shot


**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters, they are JKR's, I do not own the plot, it is ReadingRobyn, I only own the words and writing! how sad

**A/N:** This story is dedicated entirely to Robyn, as she gave me the idea, and asked me to write it. I loved this idea and wrote it in about an hour and a half, so hopefully it isn't too bad.

_**A/N2: **Ok, I slightly re-wrote this according to a review...and I think it is definetly better now. Nothing changes, just how it is written._

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Lily Evans was a pretty girl in her 7th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had thick, wavy red hair that fell just passed her shoulder blades, and clear, emerald green eyes. She was nearly 5'9'' in height and was friends with everybody, well, except James Potter. He was the one person in the world she could not stand, or so she told herself.

Today, Lily was sitting on the couch with one of her best friends, Sirius Black. He was like the brother she never had, as she was the sister he never had. She told him everything, came to him for advice, or even when she just wasn't having a good day. Sirius was very protective of her. If she ever went on a date, Sirius would have a little chat with the guy first to make sure he knew that he would not see another day if he tried anything with Lily.

The two of them were talking about light hearted topics with Sirius telling jokes every once in a while. He said something particularly funny and she threw her head back in laughter, causing many guys to turn their heads and stare at her with glazed-over eyes, which earned them a steely glare from Sirius.

James Potter had just walked in through the portrait hole after going for a ride on his broom. He saw Lily, throwing her head back in laughter, and talking with his best friend. He loved Sirius like a brother, but he couldn't help but feel jealous that he could talk to Lily any time he wanted. If James so much as said 'hello' to her, he'd get an insult, an icy glare, and, occasionally, a slap across the face.

Sirius saw James come in and said to Lily, "Will you please be nice today?"

"Why?" she answered, with slight irritation in her voice

"Please, Lily? He doesn't mean to be such an idiot. He just is!"

Lily started laughing; then answered, "Fine, Sirius. Only for you,"

James decided to take a chance and walked over to sit in an arm chair next to Lily's. She tried not to pay attention to him, and continued talking to Sirius.

"Hi, Lily," James said

"Hello, Potter," she responded, half heartedly

"How's your day been?" James asked, looking to Sirius for conformation that he was doing ok. Sirius nodded in return.

"It's been fine," Lily was going to leave it at that but Sirius glared at her so she added, "And yours?"

"Brilliant," James said

"Why? Get some girl in a broom closet to go all the way?" Lily clapped a hand over her mouth quickly as James' face fell.

"Lily!" Sirius shouted

"I'm sorry! It slipped!" she said to Sirius, but he looked pointedly at James

"I'm sorry, Potter. I know you didn't have sex with a girl in a broom closet."

"That's alright!" James said, cheerful again, "Lily, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Isn't that what were doing right now?" she retorted, but another glare from Sirius made her get up and walk with James out of the common room.

They walked a good distance along the corridor until James stopped and looked over at her.

"Lily, can you please at least think about this before you answer me?" James asked

_He's asking me out again. Can't he leave me alone? He doesn't even like me, why does he keep doing this to me! Is he purposefully trying to hurt me? _

"Will you go out with me?" James asked, looking into her eyes.

Lily leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes in what appeared to be annoyance.

_That bastard just wants me to be in pain doesn't he? 'Poor Lily, I'm going to ask her out just so I can dump her like the rest of the bimbos who throw themselves at me!' _

"Why do you keep doing this to me?" she breathed more to herself than to James

"What?" James asked, staring at her. She looked up and the pain in her eyes flashed to anger as she opened her mouth to answer him.

"No, Potter! Haven't you heard my answer enough? I'm the only girl in Hogwarts left that hasn't agreed to go out with you. I'm not about to give you that satisfaction and inflate your ego that much more!"

Lily saw the hurt in his eyes, but paid no mind to it. _It's probably fake anyways. A guy like James Potter can't even feel pain._

"Lily, please…" James said

Lily whipped around and yelled, "NO, POTTER!" and stormed down the corridor and into the common room, resuming her seat next to Sirius on the couch.

Lily looked up and saw anger in Sirius' eyes. "What?" she snapped at Sirius

"Why do you keep rejecting him, Lily?" Sirius asked in a cool voice

"I'm not even hurting him! He's the one hurting me!" she shouted, near tears

"How has he hurt you, Lily? You are the one who's rejected him for the past three years!"

"He doesn't even like me! It doesn't make a difference; he's just pissed because he can't say that he's gotten with all the girls in Hogwarts!"

Sirius looked at her, fuming. He turned around and went upstairs, returning a moment later with a shoebox. He dropped it on her lap and fell back into his seat, staring into the fire. The shoebox was black and in emerald green cursive, '_Lily'_, was written on top.

"What's this?" Lily asked

"Open it." He said, not taking his eyes out of the fire.

When she did, her heart stopped. It was filled with numerous things, but everything inside had a link to Lily. She picked up the stack of photos and started looking through them. There had to be at least 10 of her just laughing. There was one of her sitting in one of the arm chairs, curled up in a blanket, reading. One of her and her best friends sitting under a tree, throwing bread into the lake. One of her doing her homework. One of her sleeping in History of Magic back in 5th year. There was even one of her pointing her wand at James chest and shouting at him.

She looked at the other items in the box. There was one of her quills, a few of her muggle gum wrappers, a couple pieces of her homework, and one of her Tinkerbelle bookmarks. Shuffling through the contents of the box, she found a small, gray journal. She picked it up and opened it to the first page.

"_**I finally told the rest of the guys that I like Lily"**_

"_**Lily didn't even yell at me today!"**_

"_**Why doesn't Lily like me?"**_

"_**What did I do wrong?"**_

"_**I asked Lily out again today, she slapped me. It was about 7 hours ago and it's still stinging."**_

"_**I can't stand it when Lily ignores me,"**_

"_**I screwed up…again! Every time I see her, my mind goes blank and I can't do a damn thing right. I just have this need to impress her!"**_

"_**What do I need to do to get Lily to like me?"**_

"_**I dreamt about Lily again. It was wonderful, I was holding her and we were just sitting in front of the common room fire,"**_

"_**Lily laughed at something I said today!"**_

Every page she turned to was filled with her name. A few pages in the back of the book even had _Mrs. Lily Potter. Lily Anne Potter. James and Lily Potter_, scribbled all over them.

"I-He-Wh-. He likes me? Really?" she asked Sirius, looking up from the shoebox

"No, he doesn't like you, Lily," Sirius said, turning away from the fire to face her.

Lily's face fell and she started to ask, "Then why-"

"He loves you."

Lily stared at him like a deer caught in the headlights. "I- Really?" Sirius nodded his head.

She broke out into a wide smile. "Why are you smiling, Lily! You just broke his heart! Again!"

Her smile faded as she said, "I never knew he actually liked me. I thought he just wanted to have another notch on his bed post and be able to walk around school saying 'I had sex with Lily Evans! I rock!' "

"Well, you were wrong and it doesn't change that you just broke his heart." Sirus answered, his anger flaring back up as he returned his eyes to the fire.

"Broke_ his_ heart? He broke _my _heart every time he asked me out, Sirius!"

"What are you on about?" he asked, looking back at her.

"I've like James since the end of 4th year. I thought he only wanted to have the pleasure of saying he's gone out with every girl in Hogwarts! I've been thinking that every time he asked me out! Wishing I could say yes, wishing he actually liked me!"

"I-you're serious?" Sirius said, breaking into a smile larger than the one Lily had on previously

"Yes, I'm serious!"

"Wait here," he said as he ran up to the boys' dormitory. He came back down a moment later with the Marauder's Map.

"Why do I need the map?" she asked

"Are you that daft? You are going to go find him! And, you will tell him every single thing you just told me!" Sirius said, shoving the map and the shoe box into her arms and pushing her out of the common room.

"Do I have too?" she whined

"Of course you do!" he replied

"But that's embarrassing!" she whined again

"He's embarrassed himself in front of you enough times for you to do this! Now, get your ass out there and get your man!" and he shut the portrait in her face.

Lily sighed and opened the map.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," Lily said, touching the tip of her wand to the parchment.

She searched and searched for the dot labeled James and finally found him sitting by the lake. She cursed under her breath, making her way down to the doors.

"Of course! He just has to go outside in the middle of winter!"

Lily made her way down to the entrance hall and couldn't help bust smile as she stepped foot outside. It was snowing outside.

She walked over towards the lake and saw him sitting with against a tree. She stopped for a moment, to work up her nerve and finished walking the way over to where he was. She sat down next to him, looking out over the lake.

"I never knew," Lily said

"Never knew what?" James asked, still looking over the frozen lake

She put the shoe box on his lap and looked up at him, "That you really liked me,"

He stared in shock at the box and muttered, "I'm gonna kill you, Padfoot," then said louder, "What difference does it make?"

"James, look at me," he turned slowly and met her eyes.

"I've liked you since the end of 4th year,"

He opened his mouth to say something put Lily put a finger to his lips and said, "Let me finish. I've liked you since the end of 4th year, but I never thought you liked me. I figured that since I was the only girl, 5th year up, in Hogwarts that you hadn't gotten into bed with-"

"Excuse me! I'm a virgin!" she looked at him and nodded her head, then continued,

"I figured since I was the only girl left that you were only after me so you could get another notch on your bed post,"

"I would never-"

"It's ok James, it's what I thought, not what you did. So every time you asked me out, my heart broke. I thought that's all you wanted me for. Every time I kept wishing I could say yes and wishing that you would actually liked me, but I didn't want to get hurt, so I always said no. I was always so mad and so short with you, so rude to you, because that's how I dealt with my pain. Every time you did something, I would think of how you never liked me, how you only wanted me for another score, and I would get so sad. Soon, I couldn't deal with the sadness, so I turned it into anger, and took it all out on you. And I'm so sorry, I never knew, I never would have done all that to you if I did-"

"Lily?"

"Yea?" she answered looking up at him, only to find that he had leaned down and was now kissing her.

"Does this mean you forgive me?" she asked, smiling up at him.

"I was never mad at you," he answered, leaning down and kissing her again.

When they broke apart, he asked, "How much of that journal did you read?"

She kissed him and answered, "Enough. Oh, by the way, I think Potter is a fabulous name, and I do believe Lily Potter has a nice ring to it, don't you?"

He kissed her and said, "Definitely," before kissing her again.

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Please review! Once again, they make my day! 


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